Yorkville was at one time, the little germantown of Manhattan (i’ll be posting a history of yorkville post later). It’s germanness has faded in the past decades, but two strongholds remain. Schaler & Weber, the german butcher shop/grocery, that I will be sure to write up at a later date. The other, only two doors down from the wursthaus, is Heidelberg Restaurant, a main stay of the neighborhood since 1936. What better place to start my NY Bier Hall Crawl, than this legend.

What’s all this about now, you ask? Well I made a New Year’s resolution. Unlike many people’s resolutions which involve drinking less, or eating better, mine involves drinking more and having a constant supply of baked bread (ie pretzels) and meat (aka wursts and bratens). I’ve decided to take on all the german biergartens, bars and restaurants in the five boroughs and surrounding counties of the tri-state area. All this in the course of this year. To counter the possible massive weight gain this might cause I have also made a more standard resolution to run at the gym more.

Ah the Royal Brew House of Munich. This is the Holy Grail of bierhalls. No trip to Munich is complete without a visit to this fabled hall (sadly this held true for Hitler but you’ll ignore that for now).

The Weisses Haus is consistently ranked at the top of Munich’s brauhaus list (which is like being the top bagel shop in NYC). Often overshadowed and overlooked compared with the more celebrated Hofbraühaus, Weisses Brauhaus is well worth the trip.